Point the room at the one detail — Focus boxes on Bible photos
On a Bible Photo or Image slide in BibleSlides, Focus box dims the rest of the picture and leaves a window on the detail you will name. Dim starts at 65%. Every window on that step is bright together. Add a step for the next click. Separate slides puts each step on the projector and the tablet.
You are in John 5. The line you will say is the pool by the Sheep Gate, five porticoes, and the sick lying there. A Bible Photo of Bethesda shows water, columns, and a run of steps. The third row is still searching the whole frame while you say “the steps.”
A focus window leaves that one detail bright and quiets the rest of the picture. The next click can move the room to the next detail. Then you return to the verse.
The photograph serves the sentence. Point the room at the one thing the text is about, say it, and come back to Christ’s Word.
What the room sees
You draw one or more windows on a step. Everything outside those windows is covered by a dim. Every window on that step is a hole in the same dim, so two boxes on one step are both bright at once. A thin border sits on each window. It starts white, at the width Normal, and you can turn it off.
The darkness is the Dim slider on the Focus bar under the preview. Its accessible name is Outside dim strength. It runs from 0% (the photo outside the window stays as bright as the window) to 100% (the outside is fully dark). A new window starts at 65%. Leave 65% when the back row can already find the detail. Raise it when the sanctuary glare flattens the picture and the window no longer leads. Lower it when the dim swallows a caption the room still needs to read.
| Dim | What the room sees |
|---|---|
| 0% | No darkening. The window border can still mark the spot. |
| 65% | The start. The detail leads, and the rest of the photo is still there. |
| 100% | The outside is fully dark. The window is the only part of the photo they can read. |
Non-target verse dim is the neighbor on a Bible Verse slide. That slider quiets the verses outside the passage. This window quiets the picture outside a box you draw. The verse control is Non-target verse dim, under Layout in Settings. The photo control is Focus box, on the toolbar above the preview.
A Bible Verse slide also has its own focus tool. Its hover text is about dimming the rest of the slide to highlight part of the verse. That tool marks words. This article is the photograph.
Where you draw it
The window is on any photo you teach from:
| Slide | Where the picture comes from |
|---|---|
| Bible Photo | A place, the Museum tab, or Historic |
| Image | A picture you add yourself |
Museum photos are a tab inside Bible Photo, on Choose a photo. They are the same slide once you insert them. Museum photos for Sunday covers the search, the title, and the credit. Bible places covers the site photograph. The focus window is the next step after the picture is on the slide.
The same Focus box control is also on 3D Bible Maps, 3D Models, Verse Analysis, Timelines, and Powerpoint Draw. The steps below are the photograph.
Saturday: one detail, then the next
Open the Bible Photo. The window title is Bible Photo. Set the title and the credit the way you already do for a place or a museum object. Then build the clicks.
- Click Add a step. The first row is Home — the picture the room sees when the slide first appears. The new row is the first click. It is labeled 1: focus after you draw a window.
- With that row selected, click Focus box on the toolbar above the preview. The hover label reads Focus box.
- On a Bible Photo the prompt reads Draw another focus window on the preview. Drag on the preview to draw the box. On an Image slide it reads Draw a focus window on the preview. Drag to place the box. Drag the window around the detail. Cancel leaves the tool.
- The Focus bar appears under the preview. Dim shows 65%. Border is checked. Border color and Border width (Thin, Normal, Medium, Thick, Heavy, Extra) sit beside it.
- Click the window to select it. Drag it to move it. Drag a corner to resize it. The trash control’s hover note is Delete focus box.
Draw the window on the row you have selected. A window drawn while Home is selected is already up when the slide appears. If you click Focus box before any step exists, BibleSlides puts that first window on Home. On an Image slide with no steps yet, that click asks Add the first focus box to the root slide or create a reveal step? The buttons are Root slide and Create step. Both start the window on the opening view. Use Add a step when the window should wait for a click.
Add a step again for the next detail. The new row keeps the windows, arrows, labels, scribbles, and the framing you already set. Select a copied window you want dark on this click, then Delete focus box, and draw the new one. Leave the copied window in place when this click should keep the earlier detail bright too.
Two details that belong in the same sentence can share one step. Draw the second window before you add a step. Both holes stay open together.
The pool, one click at a time
John 5:2–3. The photo is the pool. Home is the whole place, so they see what you are about to name.
1: focus is the steps, or the pavement where the sick lay. Dim stays at 65% unless the back row loses the steps. You say the line. You do not say “upper left.”
Add a step. Delete the copied window. 2: focus is one portico — the colonnade the verse counts among the five. Then you advance back to the Bible Verse slide and stay in the text.
An inscription uses the same two clicks. On the Museum tab, find the stone you will name. Home is the object. The first focus step is the line of letters. A second step is the one word or the broken edge, after you delete the copied window. One object. One line. Then the verse that sent you there.
A mark, a word, and a tighter frame
The window can stand alone. Three other tools on that same toolbar belong to the step you have selected.
| Tool | What you get |
|---|---|
| Arrow | The button’s name is Draw arrow on current step. While it is on, the prompt is Draw Arrow: click and drag on the preview, and release to finish. |
| Pen | While it is on, the prompt is Draw Scribble: click and drag to scribble, and release to finish. The button’s name is Scribble (freehand on presentation step). |
| T | The button’s name is Add step label. A caption appears on the step. It starts as the word Label. Double-click it to type. Return starts a new line. Ctrl+Enter finishes. |
Annotations are the marks on a verse. These three are the marks on the photograph. How that differs from a PowerPoint arrow is the longer comparison. Use one mark. A window plus an arrow plus a scribble usually means the sentence needed a simpler picture.
Zoom sits under the preview. On a Bible Photo the number beside the slider is the percent. Drag the photo to pan while Focus box is off. The frame is stored on the step you have selected. When the next step uses a different frame, the picture eases to that frame and the window appears after the move. When the frame is the same, the window is there with the step.
The photo’s title stays on the slide. A focus step uses that title.
Sunday: the projector and the tablet
Once you have more than one step, Where steps live sits with the step rows. On a phone that block is inside Advanced.
| Choice | What Sunday does |
|---|---|
| Separate slides | Each step becomes its own slide in the editor and on the tablet. Advance is the next slide. This is the setting a new photo uses. |
| same slide | You advance on one slide with buttons. The editor and the tablet do not gain extra slides. |
Leave Separate slides when each detail is its own moment in the sermon. Home is the whole photo. The next slide is the steps. The slide after that is the portico. The tablet follows those slides with the projector.
Choose same slide when you want one slide in the deck and the clicks to stay inside it. The step previews in your notes jump to that step. The room still sees only the picture, the dim, and the window. The previews stay in the notes.
Play steps, on the slide in the notes, runs the order while you rehearse. Each step waits for its move to finish, pauses one second, then advances, and returns to Home.
Saturday checklist
- Put the photo in the deck. Bible Photo for a place, a museum object, or a historic picture. Image for a picture of your own. Write the title and leave the credit on.
- Click Add a step, then Focus box, and drag the window around the one detail the next sentence names.
- Read Dim from the back row, or have someone stand there. 65% is the start. Move it once, then stop.
- For a second detail, Add a step. Delete focus box on the copied window when this click should show only the new detail.
- Leave Where steps live on Separate slides unless you want every click inside one slide.
- Play steps in the notes. Then advance the same order on the tablet. The window, the dim, and the border should match the projector.
- Place the photo after the verse where you will say “look at this,” and come back to the text when the sentence is finished.
FAQ
Do several windows on one step show one after another?
They show together. Each window on that step is a hole in the same dim. The next step is the next click.
Why did the second step still show the first window?
Add a step keeps the windows already on the row you were on. Select the one this click should hide, and use Delete focus box.
What is Home?
The opening view, before the first numbered step. A window drawn on Home is already up when the slide appears.
Does the tablet have its own dim?
The tablet shows the slide you built. Separate slides makes each step its own slide there. same slide keeps the clicks on one slide, with the step previews in the notes.
Can I use this on a map or a 3D model?
Yes. Focus box is on 3D Bible Maps, 3D Models, Verse Analysis, Timelines, and Powerpoint Draw. The dim, the border, and Add a step are the same idea. Build the photograph the way this article describes.
What if I never touch Dim?
The outside of the window is at 65%. The border is on, at Normal.
Related guides
See BibleSlides features
Notes and slides in one document, Bible Verse slides, stepped markup, Verse Analysis, 3D maps, BiblePlaces photos, and tablet presenter apps — built for pastors who teach Scripture.